Miao, March 1: After the NSCN, Arunachal Pradesh police are gearing up to tackle the growing menace of the Ulfa in the state. Sources said a 40-member group of the Ulfa has begun serving extortion notes to businessmen, schoolteachers and government employees, particularly in the Bordumsa sub-division of Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh.
?Extortion notes demanding upto Rs 5 lakh have been served on the people and the copies we received were all on the Ulfa letterhead,? said a senior police official of the district. Till date, however, nobody has paid up, the officer added.
The Ulfa uses Changlang and Tirap districts of Arunachal Pradesh as its transit route to reach its first and second battalion camps in Myanmar and Mon district of Nagaland.
According to intelligence reports, the Ulfa decided to shift its bases to Arunachal Pradesh, particularly Changlang district, after the crackdown by the Royal Bhutan Army in the neighbouring country. A few months ago, a top leader of the outfit, Indragit Malagharia, had conducted a survey for ?safer bases? in Arunachal Pradesh.
However, there was no report that the Ulfa had actually established camps in Changlang district, the officer said. ?This might be the first step towards it and, therefore, we must take the matter very seriously and nip it in the bud,? he added.
?Earlier, the Ulfa used these parts of Arunachal as its transit route and never disturbed the people. However, now they have started serving extortion notices, next they will begin killing people. This is very unfortunate,? a source said. However, it is yet to be known if the outfit had imposed any particular tax like the two factions of the NSCN.
In order to add more teeth to security forces operating in Changlang and Tirap districts, two companies of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police have been deployed in the twin districts.